


Nepeta: Cheat the Lich

by TTMIYH



Series: Homestuck VS The Evil Lich [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bad Ending, Corruption, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Elves, F/F, Fantasy Violence, Liches, Mind Control, Monster Girls, Monsters, Transformation, Werecats, Wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:26:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28913064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TTMIYH/pseuds/TTMIYH
Summary: The Den of Darkness, huh?Well, with a name like that, it had to be pawsitively stuffed to the gills with treasure!Oh, don't give Nepeta that look, she's heard it all! The Cave of Unfathomable Evil just had a grumpy bear, easily tamed by some medicinal herbs tied to a steak. Boom! Free loot. The Fortress of Looming Dead? Did you know that skeletons cannot reach you if you are good at climbing, and that zombies are very vulnerable to fall damage? Oh, what about the Tower of the Grey Necromancer? That guy was a pushover, all Nepeta had to do was make goo-goo eyes at him and the entire place was free for the ransacking.
Relationships: Rose Lalonde/Nepeta Leijon
Series: Homestuck VS The Evil Lich [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2118672
Kudos: 10





	Nepeta: Cheat the Lich

The Den of Darkness, huh?

Well, with a name like that, it had to be pawsitively stuffed to the gills with treasure!

Oh, don't give Nepeta that look, she's heard it all! The Cave of Unfathomable Evil just had a grumpy bear, easily tamed by some medicinal herbs tied to a steak. Boom! Free loot. The Fortress of Looming Dead? Did you know that skeletons cannot reach you if you are good at climbing, and that zombies are very vulnerable to fall damage? Oh, what about the Tower of the Grey Necromancer? That guy was a pushover, all Nepeta had to do was make goo-goo eyes at him and the entire place was free for the ransacking.

And yes, the land around the Den of Darkness was blasted to smithereens, nearby villages ceaselessly raided by a particularly ornery Drider and a rambunctious Minotaur - that's why Nepeta spent a month memorizing their supposed raid times and dove on in when there was nobody to stop her! Like, yeah, sure, there would be a few paltry defenses, maybe an automaton or something, but nothing she couldn't either fight, fleece, or fuck her way through. Not that she's had to use the latter in a while, mind.

Hello? The place wasn't even locked! It took the enterprising Elven rogue no effort whatsoever to make her way down the _completely open front entrance_. With a fairylight on belt and two expertly crafted brass knuckles in hand, Nepeta _strongly_ doubted there was anything in here that could really give her any trouble. What magic defenses? Ha! The best magic defense was to just not get hit, dummy. The place was old, no doubt, with 2nd century constructions, absolutely ancient rectangular stone bricks comprising absolutely everything. The soft footfalls of her leather boots were hard to muffle against a surface this hard, but, oddly, there barely seemed to be any monsters to kill?

And oh yes, there was treasure. Far too much to actually store all at once - yeah right, what sort of lame cutpurse do you take her for? Nepeta stuffs every golden dubloon and ancient coin she can find into her Bag of Holding, popping open chest after chest after chest. Maybe once or twice she had to bash a skeleton's skull in, or drop an upwards-sliding door downwards on their spinal column, but it was never anything that warranted the kind of serious terror people spoke about this place with.

Being in this place felt great, actually.

She would never notice it, of course - you have to remember, this is a kind of devilishly charming lass who thinks that things like "enchantment warding" is beneath her. But the way her hands flit to those shiny objects with every new crate or chest popped open, more enraptured with the way the blue torchlight glinted off of it than the actual monetary value it represented, you could tell something was slowly, imperceptibly changing. Nepeta's ears twitched cautiously with every creak and groan in the distance. She was clearly getting accustomed to the place, the torchlight hurting her sensitive eyes, body kept low to the ground.

There was so much gold here. Nepeta never wanted to leave! She found another skeleton, this one with a big, angry sword, and instead of punching its skull off of its body, do you know what Nepeta (the very intelligent, very daring, very dashing rogue) did? She, like the very smart person she was, just turned around and fled down the nearest stairwell. Her hands scrabbled for purchase against the descending spiral dark, every footstep echoing louder and louder as startled panic overwhelmed any sort of brutish fight instinct she had left in her. All the bite, gone, no claws left to unsheathe - only running.

Nepeta looked around, amazed, stunned and wondrous-gazed at the immense inner sanctum she must have stumbled her way into, taking in deep lungfuls of some sort of sweet smog with every panting, terror-soaked breath. A series of gargoyles (the statues, not the creatures shaped like the statutes) aligned along the walls, dumping cavewater into two huge pools flanking the stone path she walked upon. Her body was still curled, hunched over, fists clenched, body ready to jump and run at the first sight of trouble.

She walked forward, hands on the ground, almost army-crawling along the damp stone path, until she could see the back half of the chamber, several dozen square meters of stone, starting off flat before descending in bumps and ridges like a Colosseum into some sort of central chamber, where a tall, dashing looking figure murmured quietly over a glowing lavender sphere. It was so absurdly shiny, with a beautiful sheen and light, Nepeta slowly crawling her way down the stairs carved into the cave stone, hips swaying left to right. It felt so right.

When she reached the bottom of the semicircular chamber, another gentle waterfall emerging from the sheer wall in front of her and descending into a narrow pit too small to cram herself into, the figure peering into her orb reached down to touch Nepeta. The Elven rogue hissed in retaliation, causing the taller woman to hesitate for a moment. "Oh, look at you, such a sweet little thing, wandering your way into my lair... You barely even know where you are, are you?"

"Of course I do!" Nepeta growled, face contorted into an angry scowl. "I'm. I'm going to squeeze the ball into my bag and I'm gonna go find a nice hole and I'm going to look at the ball and hug it and--"

Rose (for that was her name, not that Nepeta had even bothered learning enough about the local legends to know) waved a hand, and the orb immediately ceased its glowing. The purple sheen reflected in Nepeta's eyes fell away, and she looked up at Rose from the floor, rapidly cycling through every threat response she knew until she landed on "freeze". "W-Where am I?" Nepeta whimpered, heart beating out of her chest. Finally, Rose turned around to face Nepeta, staring down at her - with a flash of bright light, the glow in Nepeta's eyes returned.

"You want the ball back, dearest Nepeta?" Rose asked, culling the information she needed from her new monster's head. Not that the poor girl knew what was happening to her quite yet, of course... Nepeta nodded feverishly, rolling onto her back, pawing up at the air. "You'd do anything to have it back, wouldn't you?" Another nod of assent.

Rose, towering over the other girl, reached a bony hand out from beneath her shadowy robe. She snapped her fingers, some sort of invisible force lifting Nepeta off the ground, causing her to wail and writhe for purchase against the empty air. Raising her higher, higher, and higher still, until a single tap to the forehead caused Nepeta to fall back down to the ground.

The rogue let out an earsplitting yowl as her forehead opened up, a narrow slit forming and then prying itself apart on her forehead, revealing a rapidly twitching eye. New nerves attached themselves to Nepeta's brain, pumping it full of virulent, shadowy magic as her eyes rolled up in a manner that was almost lewd to witness, the way her lower legs clenched together, her tongue lolled out of her mouth, drooling idly against her chin. Eventually, they rolled back down, now blackened entirely, purple irises ringed by a tiny, narrow band of olive green, pupils reformed into malice-filled slits. "I... I..." Nepeta whined, reaching out to grab for Rose's cloak. "More! More! I need more!" She squealed, petulantly, like a child. Her short hair was quickly taken into Rose's hands and she was yanked up, without the friendly aid of telekinesis.

Still, despite the pain, she was still. "And _more_ you shall receive. In _abundance_ , even." Rose crooned. Some instinctive part of her knew the creature in front of her was stronger, far stronger, that it was Nepeta's duty to obey, but she still didn't know _what_ , exactly, she was obeying. A kiss to the cheek made her spasm. A second one made her shriek, legs clenching even harder than before as Rose tossed her aside into one of the pews. Bent back against it, Nepeta's body arched and twitched, hips thrusting into the air as her armor seemed to fall off of her, dissolving into threads, almost weaving itself into her.

Shredding claws burst forth from her feet, now truly padded for silent movement. Her metal knuckles, once used for "gently" knocking people out, deformed into molten metal before painlessly melding themselves with what used to be leather gloves, what were now a fine layer of golden fur against her swelling fingers. Claws, lethal, long, dangerous, steel-coated, emerged from her fingertips, more like talons than anything else, and her shrieks of... Emotion quickly turned into wild cackles of pleasure. "I think someone as quiet and well-hidden as you deserves to become my right-hand cat. How does that sound, Nepeta? Do you like cats?" There was no reason she couldn't have a little fun with her monsters, after all.

Nepeta didn't have much words for the taunting Lich, she just roared with triumphant need, all of her clothing having fallen off of her. Patches of fur spread across her nude body, sole to scalp, as her teeth elongated into murderous fangs, her long ears shifting along her head to a more top-mounted position, short brown hair melding with the rest of the fur across her body to give her speckles and stripes. Flexibly, the new werecat rolled backwards, hiking her feet all the way over her head, straight up into the air, and then down behind her while she pulled herself up into a crawling position.

Her body had morphed into something more befitting her new role, with lithe proportions, powerful arms, muscular calves and thighs for springing off of sheer surfaces. Slinking along the ground felt natural now, far more natural than before, as she strode with newfound confidence into Rose's arms, letting the lich scoop her up from the ground without the slightest protestation. "There we go, my little kitty, aren't you feeling much better now?" Rose asked, running a hand up and down Nepeta's tummy, giving it a slow but thorough rub.

Nepeta purred, her feet twitching, thumping into the air with happiness. "Yesss, Mistress Rose! I feel just _purrfect_!" She teased, giving a coy giggle to her new controller. Nepeta gave a little grunting sound as her claws retracted into her body, along with the coat of fur covering her, quickly leaving her almost completely the same as her prior appearance, with even the third eye on her forehead capable of temporarily closing up. "What sucker do I get to play with next?"

Reaching down to the ground, Rose telekinetically pulled up a small Bag of Holding, clearly filled with coins, judging from the heft of it, and put it down on the nude Nepeta's stomach. "Oh, are you sure you don't want to just play with your hard earned lucre instead, Nepeta?"

Nepeta batted the coin away, screwing her tongue out of her face and flashing her claws. "What? No way! That sort of lame shiny is nothing compared to Mistress Rose's beautiful eyes!" She challenged, reaching up to pry at Rose's robe. Rose set her down on the ground, where, after a couple of seconds of adjustment, she started standing again like a normal person, retracting her claws into her fingertips. Rose picked the Bag of Holding up again and tossed it at Nepeta, who obediently caught it nonetheless.

"Great. Glad to hear it. You've got a lot of loot in there, why don't you go to town and make a mess of the place with it? I'm sure there's some brigands nearby that would love some payment in exchange for mayhem." Rose requested, a dry sense of monotone humor ringing through her voice, eliciting a loyal bow from her newest monster.

"Of course, Mistress Rose! I'll do the best job I pawssibly can!" She replied, giving Rose a lethally sharp Cheshire grin.

**Author's Note:**

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